Gordon Ramsay Tries to Be King of Queens, and Fails

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The latest Kitchen Nightmares found Gordon Ramsay tackling PJ’s Steakhouse in Forest Hills. According to TV Geek Army’s recap, “even by Kitchen Nightmares’ typical hyperbolic editing standards, PJ’s is a disaster at the jump,” with a chef who threatens to throw his “[bleep]ing disgusting, rancid” food in Ramsay’s face, and an owner who’s usually drinking wine at the bar. “I can really start to understand why Queens is running as fast as it can from PJ’s,” says Ramsay (see the episode below). In the end, he installs a new chef and turns it into PJ’s Grill, but it turns out the restaurant (built to the tune of $1.2 million) was sold soon after (during filming in May of 2009, it was making $4,000 per week rather than the $18,000 necessary for breaking even). Its replacement, Manor Oktoberfest is rated 3.5 on Yelp — a marked improvement over the 1.5 rating at PJ’s. Sometimes schnitzel and beer boots succeed where Gordo fails.